University in Peshawar forces its students to delete their TikTok accounts

Some people think TikTok has gone too far with its cringeworthy content. Others are oddly content with the platform. And then you’ve got Peshawar’s Islamia College University, where the administration decided that enough was enough and ordered five of its students to delete their TikTok accounts.

As reported by ARY News, the institution apparently received multiple complaints against the students in question. The addictive nature of the short video-sharing platform has been a significant reason for its rise to popularity, and it appears that the increased usage among students has been met with intense criticism from both faculty members and colleagues alike.

In fact, a student got so fed up with the constant use of TikTok around him that he issued a formal complaint to none other than the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan himself. The frustrated student reportedly complained that app’s excessive usage in the university could actually lead to problems for female students, among other things.

And who can blame him and other critics of the Chinese social media app? As is the case with addictive forms of media, the people who use them can end up hurting themselves and others around them to a huge extent. Earlier in January, a teenage boy in the Pakpattan district of Punjab set himself on fire after his father forced him to stop making videos on TikTok.

On the other hand, one has to wonder if a university has any right to hinder the freedom of expression of its students, regardless of what they may think of the app. It’s definitely a slippery slope, but as far as Islamia College University is concerned, all that matters is creating an environment of discipline even if it comes at the cost of its students’ ability to be expressive.